It doesn’t matter that she hasn’t read Naomi Klein’s new book about climate change. It doesn’t matter because the internet of things. It doesn’t matter because most of what’s important in the world is in the comment section of news stories, not the stories themselves. We all know journalists are
Continue readingTag: Journalism
Northern Insight / Perceptivity: Comforted by false reality
A New York Times article, The Surprisingly Large Cost of Telling Small Lies, quotes a successful English business person about the need to confront truths, even uncomfortable ones, “…telling lies is the No. 1 reason entrepreneurs fail. Not because telling lies makes you a bad person but because the act
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Beat reporters left the building
In 2010, the small city of Bell, CA was front page news nationwide. Over 17 years, the city manager and other municipal officials bilked tax payers out of millions of dollars. The LA Times won a Pulitzer for reporting on this story but it had paid no routine attention to
Continue readingPR tops journalism in U.S.
If Americans often seem uninformed or misinformed about current affairs, it may be because they get more propaganda than news. There are now five times as many public relations experts at work in the U.S. than reporters. Furthermore, the difference is growing. While the number of reporters in the country
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Racism taints Kwikwetlem reporting
My initial reaction to reports of compensation paid the Kwikwetlem First Nations Chief was plain wrong. Until detail was gained, I assumed Ron Giesbrecht committed an egregious abuse of public funds. That reaction was encouraged by cursory media reports that were shaped by common prejudices, reinforced by what lawyer Joseph
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Redefinition of news
It is no secret that Postmedia, owner of daily newspapers from Montreal to Vancouver, accumulates losses at rates it cannot sustain. Raising prices and reducing expenses is not a solution. Despite higher fees, circulation revenues declined 11% in the past three years. More seriously, print advertising dropped 30% in that
Continue readingNorthern Insight: R.I.P. Paul St. Pierre, 1923-2014
In the summer of 1968, I was a naive minion of the Liberal Party, helping manage the coastal part of Paul St. Pierre’s campaign to become MP for Coast Chilcotin. It was a strange riding, with almost 700 words needed for the official description of its boundaries, 4-5 times more
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Just How Many BC Government Comms Staff Are There?
Below are all the job titles of all the comms staff in the BC Government Communications and Public Engagement bodies as of last week. Count with me! 🙂 There are 278 people! 278. That’s more than a few. The records include folks in these two areas: Government Communications: which tends to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Hudson Mews v. Portland Hotel Society
The Code of Ethics published by the Society for Professional Journalists includes, among others: Be vigilant and courageous about holding those with power accountable. Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage. Is the pro-media of British Columbia guided by those or
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Hey Tom, whose energy policy has been nonsense?
In the article “Unparalleled, indeed,” I quoted from an item written in 2011 by Black Press proselytizer Tom Fletcher. In it, he “lauded Gordon Campbell’s “long-term strategy to export hydroelectric power” and he called John Horgan the champion of doomsayers. Fletcher wrote of “evidence that current NDP energy policy is
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Occupy, For Democracy
Journalists protest the erosion of freedom of expression in Canada on Feb. 27 in Toronto. Photo Credit: Hiba Zayadin When I write about soft fascism, I sometimes feel too Canadian. I don’t want to be impolite and talk about hard or old school or 20th century fascism because frankly, when
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: 17 Things To Do While Watching TV News
There’s more than 17. Way more. And you don’t have to do them all, you just have to start with a few. Chances are, though, that you already do some of this. Click here, you’ll thank me: “Never have I seen such a perfectly exquisite – and devastating – deconstruction
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: If the 1% Has Russell Brand Killed…
If the 1% has Russell Brand killed, we will see it in the corporate media as a drug OD relapse, or a freak accident. Why? He is dangerous because he fearlessly tells the truth and challenges pretence. Let’s examine this in some detail here [with video]: His brain works twice
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Systemic Pressures Make Journalists Sloppy
Gosh, the corporate media sure can be sloppy. The heart-wrenching photo of a four-year-old Syrian refugee pictured alone crossing a desert into Jordan spread far and wide this weekend, but the fact that his family was just metres away was left behind. Photo of 4-year-old Syrian refugee triggers sympathy, confusion
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Media Corruption Trifecta!
It’s a trifecta of moral corruption! Rex Murphy shills for Big Oil and Gas. Postmedia consigns its editorial control to the Oil and Gas Lobby[TM]. Postmedia, naturally, fires one of the best energy/environment reporters in the nation. Film at 11. Ok, it’s 11. Let’s drill down. Journalists should declare when
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Can We Stop Treating Women Like Meat? Now? Maybe? Please?
Women-as-sex-meat, 2014 edition begins now. The #FacePalm is appropriate. It’s nothing new, but when can media just stop. Maybe when it’s no longer profitable? We need a revolution in media by boycotting all venues that perpetuate the women-as-sex-meat theme. Here’s what’s new, this time with Eugenie Bouchard and Cate Blanchett.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How to Spot a Good Journalist
It’s getting harder and harder, what with constant corporate media concentration, and corporatist convergence of messaging from right wing governments and their informal corporate media PR departments. But everyone once in a while we see evidence that there is a growing number of journalists who exist with integrity and can
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What Does Post-Corporate Media Look Like?
I know you’re wondering. But it’s hard to imagine. Kind of like a fish imagining life without water. We’ve known corporate media for generations. Since the advent of psychology and marketing, the influence/manipulation of corporate media is ubiquitous. And not in a good way. But let’s take a few moments
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Propaganda presented as credible news
Were I a new arrival in Canada who relied on major media, I would believe, as Canadian Press reported, Northern Gateway is a project that, “…will put billions of dollars into the coffers of Alberta, Ottawa and other provincial governments…” Further, I would believe that the NEB’s Joint Review Panel
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fixing Cyncial Corporate Media
How to inoculate yourself against cynical corporate media. Corporate news media is not on our side. It is on the side of stoking fear, cynically eroding possibilities of a better, more robust democracy, and scaring us into obedience to corporations and government through sensational stories that undermine our happiness. But
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